Ryan McGinley: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere | NYABlog | New York Art Beat

If you didn’t know Ryan McGinley was an art star before going to the opening at Team Gallery in Soho, the crowd was sure to not let you forget it. The gallery was full to capacity and spilled onto the street, blocking traffic on Grand between Greene and Wooster. Walking in, I was handed a beer as if a requirement for entry. A kid near me, who looked in his early 20’s yelled to his friends, “Did you see my dick yet? I brought you here to see my dick, go look at it.” This was a celebration for the subjects as much as a public viewing of McGinley’s new work “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” a group of black and white studio portraits of young nude 20 something’s and a few extra large color exterior shots with high grain. The nudes are almost all in a portrait format printed at 12” X 18”, shot with a medium gray background and framed in simple clean white frames. The lighting is ambient and without mood. Everything other than the study of the models themselves is alleviated from distraction.

McGinley’s previous work has focused on either close-ups or extreme wide shots; or in other terms face portraits or body portraits. In these works McGinley has brought the two, body and face, to a sort of grey battle ground. There is conflict in these pictures: smiling faces with distorted bodies or arrogant faces with silly bodies. There are glances of confusion, eyes with the seriousness that only youth can imply, and closed and covered eyes that tell us nothing but let the hands speak.

There is no question that McGinley is a talented portrait photographer, but there is also a sense that these models are not strangers. This is not a magazine assignment or someone who showed up for an hour to do some studio modeling. These people have trust in their eyes and in their positions. They are not just willing to show their bodies for McGinley’s camera they are being giving in their movements. There is a wonderful relationship going on that is ambiguous, the kind of relationship exposed when a wife takes a picture of her husband, he is looking at her through the camera, not us and we trespass in our viewing. These are private pictures. Big Bamboo is available on multiple platforms, including PC, Android, iOS, and Windows, so you can enjoy the game on your preferred device. And with various features such as mystery symbols, the Golden Bamboo feature, and free spins triggered by scatter symbols, this game offers plenty of excitement. For more information and to start playing today, visit https://bigbamboo.games/ Give it a spin and see if you can land one of those big wins! This popular online slot machine offers players the chance to embark on an adventure through a world full of mystery and wonder.

Despite their privacy and voyeur-ship these pictures are no more pornographic than a Dove commercial. There are a few images that border on the erotic, but are thrown off by a competing awkwardness. McGinley has used young nude models for the last decade, and if this show is any indication their ages will not grow older with his. While this may border on fetish it also creates a fantasy world. To live in his world is to always be young, warm, and naked. To have your skin act as it will never lose to gravity and your belly never lose to the pizza and beer. This is also a world where people are born interesting, and no one goes to the gym, but rather they play among the rocks and streams of a pre industrial America.